Ukraine-News: Putin recognizes independence of Zaporizhia and Kherson

Tübingen Mayor Boris Palmer sees problems in taking in Ukrainian refugees. “It is incomprehensible why there should be first and second class refugees and why we provide so many services that people only change their previous country of refuge and come to Germany because of these increased performance incentives,” said Palmer in the podcast “Die Wochentester” of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and the editorial network Germany. There’s a problem, he said.

A few days ago, CDU leader Friedrich Merz caused a stir because he accused Ukrainian refugees of social tourism. A short time later, Merz apologized for it. The background to the debate is that Ukraine refugees – unlike other refugees – have direct access to the Hartz IV system. According to its own information, the federal government has no indications of abuse of services by Ukrainian refugees.

The UN Security Council in New York will deal with the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea from 3 p.m. local time (9 p.m. CEST). The meeting of the most powerful body of the United Nations was requested by Russia. A total of four leaks were discovered this week on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany. An act of sabotage is suspected, and the eyes of Western countries are directed towards Russia.

The Russian government denies any involvement – and blames another state. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently said that it was “very difficult to imagine that such a terrorist act would occur without the involvement of a state”. In the midst of the Ukraine war, the leaks are not only causing political turbulence, but are also likely to be harmful to the environment and climate have an impact.

The UN Security Council in New York will vote on Friday on a resolution condemning the so-called referendums in the Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. This was announced by the French presidency of the highest UN body on Thursday evening in New York. The resolution tabled by the US and Albania has no chance of being adopted, since Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, can veto it.

However, the text is likely to be presented later to the UN General Assembly. The “referendums” in the four embattled Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Cherson are viewed by the West as illegal and a breach of international law. The United States accused the Kremlin of “land grabbing” and declared that it would “never recognize the outcome of these sham referendums.”

The US judiciary indicts the Russian oligarch and confidante of President Vladimir Putin, Oleg Deripaska, for violating US sanctions. As the US Department of Justice announced on Thursday, the 52-year-old aluminum billionaire is accused of trying to get his two children US citizenship by circumventing the sanctions.

The indictment is also directed against his girlfriend and two helpers. According to the indictment, they tried to allow Deripaska’s girlfriend Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina to enter the United States so that she could give birth to their children there. This was successful in 2000, but in 2022 the pregnant woman was denied entry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognized the independence of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. This emerges from presidential decrees published in Moscow on Thursday evening, in which Putin orders to recognize “the state sovereignty and independence” of the two regions in southern Ukraine. A ceremony is planned for Friday in Moscow, at which these two regions, as well as Luhansk and Donetsk, are to be annexed.
Moscow had already recognized the independence of the self-declared People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk a few days before the start of the military offensive on February 24. Last Tuesday, multi-day “referendums” ended in the four areas that the Ukrainian government and Western countries have declared illegal. According to the pro-Russian authorities there, in these “referendums” a large majority of the population agreed to incorporation into Russian territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling on the Russian people to stand up to Putin and stop the war. “To stop this, you have to stop this one in Russia who wants war more than life,” Zelenskyy said in a video message released in Kyiv. Only one person in Russia wants war, he said, referring to Putin.

In another video published almost at the same time, Selenskyj addressed the multi-ethnic region of the Caucasus in Russia in particular. He urged people to fight for their freedom and not to be sent to the war in Ukraine. In the Russian republic of Dagestan in particular, there had recently been violent protests against the partial mobilization ordered by Putin. There are complaints that it is primarily members of ethnic minorities who are sent to war.